Chinanews, Beijing, June 13 – In recent years, the misery of some retired athletes has aroused great social concern. Many retired athletes, such as former national weightlifting champion Zou Chunlan, and former world Marathon champion Ai Dongmei, had a vary hard time hunting for jobs after they retired from their sports career. Although Zou Chunlan and Ai Dongmei found a good job after their stories were publicized, it should be noted that among many other retired athletes, who remain inconspicuous from media, such sad thing is repeated every day. In recent years, a new major—life planning for athletes—has appeared in some universities. The new major aims to help athletes to better manage their life, the China Sports Daily reported.
Information shows that nearly 10,000 athletes retire every year in China. However, only 10% of them can be provided with a stable job after they retire from their sports career, while most other retired athletes have to find a job on their own. Generally speaking, the majority part of the retired athletes does not have any experiences in making plans for their future life and most of them do not plan for their life in advance.
Despite this, it might not be fair to say that Chinese sports authorities have failed to take care of these people. For most of the time, sports departments can only find a job for athletes. However, the sports departments did not teach them any basic skills that could help them survive in society. So, the real problem is that Chinese sports departments should teach their athletes “how to fish” instead of merely “giving them fishes,” said Fan Fumin, a professor on life planning at Tsinghua University.
By teaching athletes “how to fish”, it means that before athletes retire, sport departments should guide them to make their own life plans in advance. Athletes should learn the basic skills that will help them to survive in society. To make life plans, athletes should have a clear picture of what they are good at and what their shortcomings are. They should know about themselves and also about society. Only with this knowledge can they get well-prepared for their future life.